Red Sox DH David Ortiz Still Hurting, Won't Rush Return

March 07, 2013|The Sports Xchange, The Hartford Courant

Is it time to worry about David Ortiz? The big designated hitter, who represents perhaps the most important piece of the lineup, still feels pain in his injured right Achilles, seven months after suffering the injury. He didn't sprint all winter and spent the early portions of spring training trying to run the bases, with varying degrees of success.

The doctors have promised Ortiz that the pain he's merely feeling is not an indiciation of possible reinjury, but simply the breakdown of scar tissue and an area of calcification that occurred behind the Achilles, which is irritating the tendon. He has been told the slight tear he suffered in the Achilles last year is healed.

Speaking to reporters recently, Ortiz acknowledged his frustration with the ups and downs of rehab. He said the biggest hurdle was staying loose within a game, because his heel often becomes sore between at-bats.

"I want to be sure that when I get back, it's for the rest of the season," he said. "I don't want it to be one week on, two weeks off. That's why we've been smart about how we're approaching things, so when I come back and play, I'm going to get in the lineup and stay there."

The Red Sox believe that Ortiz will be ready for the start of the season, and the 37-year-old slugger who just signed a two-year, $26 million contract is optimistic. But he can't guarantee it.

"We're trying," he said. "We're trying. I want to be ready, but injuries are injuries. You want to be back the next day, but it doesn't work that way."

NOTES: Outfielder Ryan Westmoreland, at one time the team's top minor league prospect, announced his retirement in an e-mail to the Providence Journal following a pair of surgeries to remove cavernous malformations in his brain. "Although it is a very difficult decision for me, it has become clear that the neurological damage caused by the most recent cavernous malformation and surgery leaves me with physical challenges that make it impossible to play the game at such a high level," he wrote. … 1B Mike Napoli (hip) may have started games a week late, but he hit the ground running, smashing a pair of mammoth home runs in his first week and playing a solid first base. "I've never felt anything in my hips," he said. "I'm not even thinking about it on the field. I'm just trying to play the game. It's nice to show people that don't really understand the situation that everything's all right and we're moving forward. I guess it shows people that I can play the game." … LHP Felix Doubront, who arrived at camp out of shape and with a sore shoulder, made his first spring start and vowed to open the season in the rotation. "I'll start throwing more innings here and start facing more hitting and start gaining my confidence," Doubront said. "I'm 100 percent confident, but I have to feel 100 percent ready to pitch. That's what I'm doing now. I'm working hard every day to feel that way and it starts today."